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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and conservationists could be facing off with one another if the U.S. government decides to go through with plans to build a border security fence to keep illegal immigrants from Mexico from entering the States. Of major concern is a strip of subtropical forest running between the towns of Fronton and Roma, Texas. Already severely compromised by farming and urban sprawl, the remaining forest running along both sides of the Rio Grande River will become even more compromised if a wall is allowed to go up dab smack in the middle of it.

Few people may know about it, but this stretch of land is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. Home to over five-hundred bird species (two dozen of which only live in the river forest) and three-hundred species of butterfly (more than all U.S. land east of the Mississippi is home to), there is no doubt that precious life and habitat is at stake here.

Ecologists already have their hands full trying to piece the habitat back together, which has been disjointed by farmland and residential developments. They are currently trying to vegetate old farm crops with native plants in an attempt to return the habitat to its original state. Ecologists at the local Nature Conservancy say that many plants and animals are in danger of going extinct because the habitat has been severed into several smaller islands. And according to the World Conservation Union, most of the 800 different species of life that have gone extinct since 1500, have been on islands. Without the necessity to roam, animals become isolated and restricted, which greatly increases chances of extinction. One of the most jeopardized animals is the ocelot, which is a wild cat down to only a few dozen animals in the U.S.

The Nature Conservancy worries that all of the hard work taking place to restore the area will be for not if a giant wall goes up to further detach the habitat from itself even more. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol sees it another way. Their reasoning is that putting up the wall will actually be better for the environment because it will curtail the litter that is being left behind by illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border and help vegetation to grow where it was once trampled by border crossers. And this is better than extinction?

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